Marianne Faithfull, 74, in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus as her ex-husband John Dunbar claims the star is 'barely able to speak'

The singer's management claimed she is 'stable' as she battles the virus

Mick Jagger's former lover is 'responding well to treatment' after testing positive

A spokesperson for Marianne said: 'Marianne Faithfull's manager Francois Ravard has confirmed that she is being treated for Covid-19 in hospital'

By CHARLOTTE DEAN FOR MAILONLINE 4 April 2020

Marrianne Faithfull is in hospital being treated for coronavirus.

The 74-year-old singer's ex-husband John Dunbar has claimed that she is struggling to speak as she battles the deadly virus at a London hospital.

However Mick Jagger's former lover is said to be 'stable' and 'responding well to treatment' after testing positive for the condition, her management confirmed.

Confirmed: Marrianne Faithfull is in hospital being treated for coronavirus

John, who was briefly married to the star between 1965 and 1966, said that she had been hospitalised on Tuesday after developing symptoms.

The British artist is quoted as saying: 'She can barely speak and no visitors,' but added that it has been 'so far so good', regarding her treatment.

Marianne's friend Penny Arcade posted a statement on social media: 'Marianne Faithfull is in hospital in London having tested positive for Covid 19. She went in this past Tuesday.

'She has withstood and survived so much in her life - including being Marianne Faithful, that to be taken down by a virus would be such a tragedy.

The singer, 74, is 'stable and responding to treatment' as she battles the virus in hospital in London, her management confirmed on Saturday (pictured in 1967)


News: However Mick Jagger's former lover is said to be 'stable' and 'responding well to treatment' after testing positive for the condition, her management confirmed (pictured with Mick)

'I spoke to her last week and she was hiding out from the virus but she has caregivers and someone brought in to her.'

A spokesperson for Marianne told MailOnline: 'Marianne Faithfull's manager Francois Ravard has confirmed that she is being treated for Covid-19 in hospital in London.

They added: 'She is stable and responding to treatment, we all wish her well and a full and speedy recovery.'

The London-born Marianne was first discovered at a Rolling Stones launch party she attended with John in 1964, which helped launch her singing career.

Struggles: John, who was briefly married to the star between 1965 and 1966, said that she had been hospitalised on Tuesday after developing symptoms (pictured together in 2007)


A spokesperson for Marianne told MailOnline: 'Marianne Faithfull's manager Francois Ravard has confirmed that she is being treated for Covid-19 in hospital in London'

Later that year, she released her first song, As Tears Go By, written by Jagger, Keith Richards and the man who discovered her, Andrew Loong Oldham.

She released a slew of successful hits and ended up marrying Dunbar in 1965, though she ultimately left him for Jagger.

But after leaving Jagger in the 1970s, she became addicted to heroin, and she was homeless and living on the streets for a spell.

Marianne Faithfull puts on stunning performance in Austrian theatre show

She was found on the street by producer Mike Leander in 1971 as she tried to get her career on track, releasing the country-influenced album Dreamin' My Dreams in 1975, but her career wasn't fully revived until her 1979 album Broken English.

It was revealed earlier this year that Lucy Boynton, 26, will star as Marianne in a new planned biopic detailing her life.

The film will chart her sudden and meteoric rise, to her downfall with substance abuse and homelessness before her road to recovery.

Life and times: The London-born Marianne was first discovered at a Rolling Stones launch party she attended with John Dunbar in 1964, which helped launch her singing career (pictured in 1969)

'Marianne is an extraordinary woman who rebelled against the male dominated music industry,' director Ian Bonhote said.

'The film will explore female-issues as well as the injustices she suffered in her quest to be recognised as an artist,' he added.

'I'm honoured to collaborate with Lucy and Julia to shine a light on Marianne's timeless story,' he said, referring to Boynton and producer Julia Taylor-Stanley.


Role of a lifetime: It was revealed earlier this year that Lucy Boynton, 26, will star as Marianne in a new planned biopic detailing her life

Boynton herself will serve as an executive producer, though it remains unclear when the film will go into production, or when it will be released.

'I am delighted that my story is finally being made with my dream team of Lucy, Julia and Ian,' Faithfull herself said in a statement.

Lucy starred as Mary Austin in her boyfriend Rami Malek's rock biopic Bohemian Rhapsody last year, and she played Astrid Sloan in The Politician.


Icon: In 1964 Marianne released her first song, As Tears Go By, written by Jagger, Keith Richards and the man who discovered her, Andrew Loong Oldham (pictured in 2011)



The news comes after the nation suffered the worst day yet in the coronavirus crisis as 708 people died with a five-year-old child, who had underlying health issues, being the youngest victim.

Since the start of the outbreak there have been 41,903 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the UK with a total death toll of 4,313.

With temperatures heading for the mid to high 60s, health chiefs were afraid people would ignore the government's coronavirus lockdown rules over the weekend, jeopardising the strategy of limiting the spread of the deadly Covid-19 virus.

Officials warn the lockdown may have to be extended if people continue to ignore the advice to stay at home and only go out for essential reasons.

Love life: She released a slew of successful hits and ended up marrying Dunbar in 1965, though she ultimately left him for Jagger (pictured in 1968)

Trump ignores catastrophic job figures to hit out at 'insatiable complainers who should have been stocked long before crisis hit' and blames New York for 'late start' in fighting coronavirus

President Trump tweets attack on 'complainers' about severe shortages of hospital equipment minutes after devastating jobs numbers are published

He ignores 6.6million new unemployment claims and focuses anger on Chuck Schumer and New York state 

He blasted 'Cryin' Chuck Schumer' Thursday morning for 'complaining' about coronavirus supply shortages

Schumer had gone on television and on Twitter and demanded the president appoint a military commander to handle the supply chain 

'His presidential appointees are not up to the job,' Schumer argued in a Wednesday night tweet
On Thursday, after Schumer appeared on 'Morning Joe,' Trump went after him saying a 'very talented' admiral was in charge of distribution 

'Unlike other states, New York unfortunately got off to a late start,' Trump said of the city and state most impacted currently by the coronavirus pandemic 

'Some have insatiable appetites & are never satisfied (politics?). Remember, we are a backup for them,' he said

Trump is trying to pain the federal government as a backup to states
By NIKKI SCHWAB, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 2 April 2020
President Trump ignored Thursday's devastating jobs numbers and instead launched an attack on unnamed states as 'insatiable complainers' about vital equipment - hinting heavily that he meant New York.

Minutes after the Labor Department disclosed that there were 6.6 million new unemployment claims last week, Trump went after people 'complaining,' singling out New York senator - and Democratic minority leader - Chuck Schumer.

'Massive amounts of medical supplies, even hospitals and medical centers, are being delivered directly to states and hospitals by the Federal Government,' Trump tweeted.

'Some have insatiable appetites & are never satisfied (politics?). Remember, we are a backup for them. The complainers should have been stocked up and ready long before this crisis hit.

'Other states are thrilled with the job we have done. Sending many Ventilators today, with thousands being built. 51 large cargo planes coming in with medical supplies. Prefer sending directly to hospitals.'

Those tweets came after a direct attack on Schumer and more criticism of New York.

President Trump blasted Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate's most powerful Democrat, for 'complaining' about supply shortages in New York - and asking Trump to appoint a military commander to be in charge of getting supplies to states

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In two tweets Thursday morning, Trump went after Schumer and blamed New York, the current epicenter of the virus in the United States, as getting 'off to a late start'

+16







The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week has shot to a record 6.6 million, according to figures released by the Department of Labor on Thursday

'Somebody please explain to Cryin' Chuck Schumer that we do have a military man in charge of distributing goods, a very talented, Admiral, in fact,' Trump tweeted Thursday morning. 'New York has gotten far more than any other State, including hospitals & a hospital chip, but no matter what always complaining.

'It wouldn't matter if you got ten times what was needed, it would never be good enough. Unlike other states, New York unfortunately got off to a late start. You should have pushed harder. Stop complaining & find out where all of these supplies are going. Cuomo working hard!'

The tweets continued with Trump's attempt to shift responsibility for the handling of the crisis to states, and paint the federal government as a rescue service.

It also hinted at his repeated claim that vital medical equipment is 'going out the back door' of New York hospitals, which has been dismissed by state and city authorities.

In New York Andrew Cuomo, the governor, was asked to square Trump's attack on Schumer with praise for him. 'I don't know if you can square those two statements,' he said at his daily press briefing.

Then he added - apparently sarcastically: 'I think him for his good words that he thinks I am doing a good job.'


Schumer has been doing the media rounds arguing that Trump needs to put a military commander in charge of manufacturing and distributing much needed medical supplies under the Defense Production Act


Schumer also laid out his point in a Thursday evening tweet, noting that Trump's presidential appointees 'are not up to the job'

Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, had been doing the media rounds - and also made the point on Twitter - saying that he believed Trump needed to appoint a czar 'like a military or logistics expert' in order to produce and distribute much needed medical supplies more quickly.

'His presidential appointees are not up to the job,' Schumer argued in a Wednesday night tweet.

Also on CNN Wednesday night, Schumer said that Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro, whom the president tapped to be in charge of the Defense Production Act's execution was 'not up to the job.'

'He is a very nice man but he has no experience doing things like this,' the New York Democrat said. 'And they have no one that I can best tell in charge of the distribution.'

Schumer repeated many of the same points on 'Morning Joe' Thursday morning. And his appearance on the show was followed by Trump's tweets.

'It wouldn't matter if you got ten times what was needed, it would never be good enough,' Trump wrote.

'Unlike other states, New York unfortunately got off to a late start,' the president stated. 'You should have pushed harder. Stop complaining & find out where all of these supplies are going.'

Trump concluded the two tweets by complimenting New York's Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat like Schumer.

'Cuomo working hard!' Trump wrote.

The president's comments came as new job numbers showed an astounding 10 million Americans became out of work in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

While 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week an additional 6.6 million filed for those benefits this week, wrapping up the month of March.

Trump has yet to mention the unemployment numbers.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week has shot to a record 6.6 million - as layoffs increased amid the coronavirus pandemic and more states enforced stay-at-home orders.

New claims for unemployment benefits rose to 6.65 million in the week ending March 28, according to figures released by the Department of Labor on Thursday.

The number of first-time applications for jobless benefits was double the previous record of 3.3 million new claims filed for the week ending March 21.

It means that roughly 10 million Americans have lost their jobs and filed for unemployment in the two weeks that the coronavirus started rapidly spreading across the country.

The new unemployment claims account for the week in which states like New York shuttered non-essential businesses and enforced stay-at-home orders.

More than 80 percent of Americans are now under some form of lockdown - up from less than 50 percent just a few weeks ago - as the death toll rose to 5,139 as more than 216,000 Americans have tested positive for the virus.

All 50 states reported rises in new unemployment claims, according to the new report. Pennsylvania (up 362,012), Ohio (up 189,263) and Massachusetts (up 141,003) reported the largest increases.

In the same week of last year, only 211,000 people requested benefits for the first time.


New claims for unemployment benefits rose to 6.65 million in the latest week from the 3.3 million the previous week. It means that 10 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the two weeks that the coronavirus started rapidly spreading across the country
Trump won't declare a national shutdown, leaves it up to governors

Some of last week's jobless claims could be delayed filings from the previous week when state offices that handle unemployment benefits were overwhelmed by a surge of online and telephone claims.

There is anecdotal evidence that people who have tried to file claims online have not been able to with some forced to wait five hours to log onto the website and others calling hundreds of times just to get through.

Numerous state unemployment agencies have struggled to keep up with the flood of applications for jobless benefits.

New York's Labor Department is asking people to file on different days depending on their last names, for example: Monday is reserved for those last names that start with A through F.

The government's weekly report, the most timely data on the economy's health, offered the clearest evidence yet that the longest employment boom in US history likely ended in March.

Before the virus hit, unemployment in the US was at its lowest in 60 years and the economy was stronger than it had ever been.

The surging layoffs have led some economists to predict the worst job losses since World War II.

Many employers are continuing to slash their payrolls to try to stay afloat during the pandemic because their revenue has collapsed, especially at restaurants, hotels, gyms, movie theaters and other venues that depend on face-to-face interaction.

Stay-at-home orders, imposed by most US states, have intensified pressure on businesses, most of which face rent, loans and other bills that must be paid.

The result far surpassed even the highest of estimates by economists with analysts who had expected grim figures left stunned.

'No words for this,' said Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics.

'We're hoping today's reading will be the peak, but we can't be sure,' he said in an analysis. 'In any event, total layoffs between the March and April payroll surveys look destined to reach perhaps 16 to 20 million, consistent with the unemployment rate leaping to 13 to 16 percent. In one month.'


More than 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, according to new figures released by the Department of Labor on Thursday. About 50 people lined up (above) outside an Arkansas unemployment office on Monday

The outbreak has spurred an unprecedented surge in Americans seeking government assistance.

They have already outstripped applications for unemployment benefits that peaked at 665,000 during the 2007-2009 recession, during which 8.7 million jobs were lost.

Economists say the country should brace for jobless claims to continue escalating, partly citing generous provisions of a historic $2.2 trillion fiscal package signed by President Donald Trump last week and the federal government's easing of requirements for workers to seek benefits.

The expanded unemployment benefits system added $600 a week in jobless aid, on top of what recipients receive from their states. The unemployed eligible for up to $600 per week for up to four months, which is equivalent to $15 per hour for a 40-hour week.

By comparison, the government-mandated minimum wage is about $7.25 per hour and the average jobless benefits payment was roughly $385 per person per month at the start of this year.

It also makes many more people eligible for unemployment benefits, including the self-employed, contractors, and so-called 'gig economy' workers such as Uber and Lyft drivers.

The legislation will help to fund unemployment benefits for workers whose hours have been cut. That would enable these people to replace some of their lost income with unemployment aid even as they keep their jobs. About 26 states allow workers with reduced hours to claim benefits.

Last week's claims data has no bearing on the closely watched employment report for March, which is scheduled for release on Friday.

For the employment report, the government surveyed businesses and households in the middle of the month, when just a handful of states were enforcing 'stay-at-home' or 'shelter-in-place' orders.

It is, however, a preview of the carnage that awaits as the coronavirus pandemic worsens.

Retailers including Macy's, Kohl's Corp and Gap Inc said on Monday they would furlough tens of thousands of employees as they prepare to keep stores shut for longer.
Schumer says Congress closing in on coronavirus aid packag

People gather at the entrance for the New York State Department of Labor offices. New Yorkers have reported issues filing for unemployment benefits

Connecticut governor says people will have to wait FIVE WEEKS for their unemployment checks and laid off workers in New York say they still can't get through to apply

The governor of Connecticut has said that unemployment checks will be delayed at least five weeks, adding to the woes of laid off workers struggling to pay bills in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Governor Ned Lamont said on Tuesday that Connecticut Department of Labor staff were being overwhelmed by processing applications while working remotely on outdated computer systems.

'I'm sad to report that there's a five-week lag time,' Lamont said. 'Everything is retroactive, so even if it's slow for us to get it back to you - it's not that our heart's not there, it's because the technology is 40 years old. And we're loading in more (staff) every day to help catch up with that backlog.'

Lamont said the labor department was in the midst of updating the antiquated mainframe used to process claims, but that the update would not be complete for at least a year.

In New York, the epicenter of the outbreak, Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the state normally processes about 50,000 claims a week but that on Monday the state's Department of Labor had received 1.2 million claims.

Yet many New Yorkers who have been out of work for several weeks say they are still unable to file unemployment claims due to crashed websites and flooded call lines.

'We can't get thru to FILE A CLAIM' tweeted one New York resident on Tuesday. 'System Overload. Continues to freeze up & crash. Restricted days/hours. We realize this is an unprecedented crisis but it must be fixed ASAP.'

'NYS Unemployment completely down,' another wrote with a screen shot of an error message on the New York Department of Labor website. 'Good luck getting paid.'

In response to the unprecedented claim volume, New York has instituted restrictions on which days people can apply based on the first letters of their last names - but laid off workers still say it is impossible to file.

A spokeswoman for the New York Department of Labor told DailyMail.com that the department had dedicated 700 staff members to the state's unemployment insurance hotline and was currently training hundreds more.

'We have added over 20 additional servers to support the website's capacity,' spokeswoman Deanna Cohen said in a statement. 'We will continue to double down on all of these efforts to serve every New Yorker who is filing for unemployment insurance.'
Cuomo holds briefing on the coronavirus response in New York


A lone passenger checks in with a TSA agent at Denver International Airport on Wednesday as a statewide stay-at-home order remains in effect in an effort to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus

Workers at the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, are still on the job, despite a slow down in work. Less than a dozen passengers are seen waiting in a TSA line at John F. Kennedy Airport on Tuesday

Private sector employees feel pain of coronavirus job cuts as public sector workers like TSA agents are paid their full hours despite a drastic drop in travel

Private sector employees are enduring the worst of the job cuts as a result of the coronavirus outbreak with more than a quarter of American saying they've lost wages and about 16 percent already being furloughed or laid off, according to a poll released Wednesday.

Retailers including Macy's, Gap, JCPenney and Neiman Marcus, as well as mall owner Simon Properties, among others from the private sector are enacting furloughs because of the outbreak.

Companies like iHeart Media representing 800 stations, outdoor recreational craft maker Polaris, and even hospital operators are also sending employees home.

Meanwhile, government employees, including those who work for the TSA, have remained employed full time despite travel restrictions resulting in a slow down in work.

Jasmine, a 21-year-old TSA agent at Los Angeles International Airport, told Vox that her job was easy for the first time ever because airlines are operating significantly fewer flights.

'I'm just hanging out with my friends at this point,' a TSA worker at Los Angeles International Airport told Vox.

'Things have been really slow for about two weeks now.

'Our numbers have just been slowly decreasing. It's super weird because we're so used to constant rush. Now it's literally, like, 10 people an hour, it's crazy.'

Southwest Airlines, for example, are currently flying at about 20 percent capacity.

While the government-run TSA continues to operate, other airport services like restaurants, bars and retails shops have been shuttered because of the virus.

---30---

The political lessons of the 1918 pandemic
David Faris THE WEEK APRIL 4, 2020

Illustrated | Getty Images, Library of Congress, iStock

Unexpected natural disasters have a way of revealing undiagnosed pathologies in a country's economic, social, and political systems.

For the United States in 2020, the still-unfolding COVID-19 viral calamity has exposed the upside-down nature of work and reward in our society. Millions of low-wage, low-status workers are holding supply (and sanity) chains and critical everyday processes in place while the wealthy escape to their vacation homes and many in the middle class get either a taste of round-the-clock daycare or a reminder that many of their jobs maybe aren't that important in the first place. While other countries have pledged indefinite financial support for all citizens, the U.S. Congress passed a series of woefully inadequate measures seemingly designed to plunge the country into a turbocharged Great Depression.

Worse, President Trump's decision to take counsel from crackpot law professors and his useless son-in-law instead of public health professionals means that many states are only now taking the steps necessary to contain the spread of this awful virus. Despite the brief polling sugar high from a rally-around-the-flag effect, the president and his obeisant red state governors own the response to this crisis. With unemployment headed to levels not seen even in the 1930s, as many as 200,000 Americans condemned to die agonizing deaths in hospital isolation wards and millions trapped in houses away from friends, family, and any source of joy, there will likely be a reckoning in November.

How significant the ruling party's punishment will be depends on a number of factors. Political scientist Alan Abramowitz's "Time For Change" model of post-WWII presidential elections featuring an incumbent shows that two factors — second quarter economic growth, and the president's net approval rating in June — are decisive in the incumbent party's fortunes.

Let's say, for example, that President Trump's approval rating eventually floats back down to the net -7.7 mark where it was on Super Tuesday, what we might now think of as the last normal day any of us will experience for months. Let's also say that second quarter economic growth comes in at -5 percent, which is significantly less dire than what economists now think is likely. What currently looks like a best-case scenario in these variables for Trump would yield something in the range of a 388-150 Electoral College landslide for the Democratic nominee in November, according to Abramowitz.

However, these models simply cannot account for the Black Swan nature of this crisis, or whether President Trump's base will ever acknowledge his administration's role in leaving America defenseless to the ravages of COVID-19. It is certainly possible that he will successfully emit some kind of blame miasma at other targets — Democrats for impeaching him, governors like Andrew Cuomo for not acting quickly enough, Congress for failing to pass a sufficient relief package, the Obama administration for whatever he can — and get away with it. But that strategy seems likely to run into limitations given the likely scale of human and economic suffering that is in store for this country.

To get a better sense of what awaits the GOP in November, we might also look at how natural disasters effect parties-in-power around the world. Here, the data is mixed. Some studies have shown little effect. And sometimes, as with Hurricane Sandy just before the 2012 election, incumbents seem to benefit. A 2011 paper presented at the International Studies Association conference by Constantine Boussalis, Travis Coan, and Parina Patel looked at the effects of natural disasters like hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes on subsequent elections between 1980 and 2007. They found that incumbent parties and leaders are most likely to be punished by voters if a) the state lacks the capacity or wherewithal to respond appropriately and b) enough time — but not too much time! — has passed for voters to assign blame to the incumbents.

The United States, the richest and most powerful country in the world, certainly possesses the wherewithal to respond capably to this disaster. But thus far the federal government has failed comprehensively to prevent the spread of the virus, to provide the needed testing, to distribute the necessary protective equipment for health care workers, and to put the kind of cash in people's pockets needed to avoid large-scale economic displacement. It is hard to identify any feature of this crisis that has been competently managed by these White House ineptocrats.

Is COVID-19 a "natural disaster"? In some ways yes, but the closest analogue to our current situation might actually be located more distantly in our own history: the 1920 presidential election. That year the incumbent, Democrat Woodrow Wilson, ailing and nearing the end of his second term, did not seek re-election. The country was just emerging from the terrible ravages of the 1918-1919 Spanish flu epidemic which had killed between 17 and 100 million people worldwide, including about 675,000 Americans, as well as from the aftermath of World War I. Perhaps worst of all for Democrats, the economy plummeted into a sharp recession beginning in January 1920, with industrial production plummeting by a third and unemployment spiking to nearly 12 percent over the following year. While public opinion polling did not exist 100 years ago, it is hard to imagine anything other than decisive opposition to the Wilson administration and its policies.

The 1920 election therefore features the convergence of all three variables — a sharp economic downturn in the second quarter of the election year plus an unpopular incumbent president who presided over the application of difficult and painful measures to fight off an exogenous shock in the form of a flu pandemic. Really, there is absolutely nothing remotely as similar to this year as the 1920 election.

What happened? Republican Warren Harding, campaigning on a "return to normalcy" (sound familiar?) won more than 60 percent of the vote and a towering majority in the Electoral College. Republicans added massively to narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress. It was a thorough repudiation of nominee James Cox and the Democratic Party. Republicans would go on to preside over the Roaring Twenties, winning the next three presidential elections and maintaining unified control of Congress until 1931.

There's one more structural similarity. Woodrow Wilson was the only Democrat to win the presidency between 1896 and 1932, and one of only two Democrats to win the office between the end of the Civil War and the Great Depression. His original election in 1912, like Donald Trump's in 2016, was a fluke produced in part by third-party spoilers. In 1912, it was former president Theodore Roosevelt, who split the Republican vote all over the country with incumbent Republican President William Taft.

DAMON LINKER
An unavoidable economic cataclysm

Democrats have won the most votes in every presidential election since 1992 with the exception of 2004. Only bizarre and antiquated institutions like the Electoral College prevent us from seeing that we are already likely in the midst of a long period of Democratic dominance of national politics. In that sense, even before COVID-19 crashed the economy and menaced millions, the president was probably facing an uphill battle.

Will President Trump lose by Harding-Cox margins? Of course not, not in today's hyper-polarized political environment. He could still win. But unless he somehow rises to the occasion of this crisis and does real, recognizable good instead of play-acting as the president for half an hour every day at his press conferences, he's in deep trouble.

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Donald Trump is playing with revolutionary fire

Illustrated | iStock 

Ryan Cooper April 3, 2020

The American military is suffering from the novel coronavirus pandemic. At time of writing over 1,600 Department of Defense staff have tested positive, including a major outbreak on the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, where over 100 sailors out of a crew of over 4,000 have been infected. The lack of proper quarantine facilities onboard prompted the ship's Captain Brett Crozier to plead for help in a letter to his superiors which was later obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle. "Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our Sailors," he wrote.

The Roosevelt was eventually docked in Guam and evacuated. But Crozier has now been relieved of his command. Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly said Crozier showed "extremely poor judgment" in creating a "firestorm." Translation: He embarrassed President Trump, who has installed toadies like Modly in a number of senior military leadership positions.

As Crozier departed the Roosevelt, the remaining crew sent him off to wild cheers. "One of the greatest captains you ever had … the man for the people," said one sailor. Such a sight ought to freeze the blood of any American politician. Historically, treating the armed forces with gratuitous contempt runs a serious risk of mutinies or revolution. He surely does not know it, but Trump is playing with fire.


In his history of the Russian Revolution, Leon Trotsky wrote that the state's grip on the armed forces was one deciding factor in any potential revolution. "Against a numerous, disciplined, well-armed and ably led military force, unarmed or almost unarmed masses of the people cannot possibly gain a victory." The ground for revolt in 1917 was only laid because disgruntled soldiers disgusted by Tsar Nicholas II's appalling performance in the First World War turned against the regime. That followed an example set in the quasi-revolution of 1905, when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin famously mutinied after their captain murdered a sailor for complaining about being fed rancid meat.

It is of course exceedingly difficult to imagine American sailors and soldiers turning against the Trump administration. But extreme crises can sometimes change attitudes very, very quickly. There's a reason why in previous crises, like the standoff over the debt ceiling in 2013, the government always took care to make sure the military paychecks kept flowing. But Trump's titanic narcissism and ignorance make this danger impossible for him to grasp.

On the contrary, Trump has made it abundantly clear that the only qualification that matters for top military personnel is personal loyalty to him. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper fired Undersecretary for Policy John Rood because he was involved with the aid to Ukraine that got Trump impeached. As of early March, over "a third of all Senate-confirmed civilian positions at the Department of Defense are now vacant or filled by temporary officials," Politico reports, in part because "a 29-year-old Trump loyalist ... is now trying to exert more control over the Pentagon’s nominating process." Trump is a man so petty that his administration ordered the USS John McCain hidden behind a tarp during a Trump visit to Japan because the president previously feuded with the ship's namesake, and they did not want to trigger a temper tantrum.

Trump's treatment of Captain Crozier also makes a jarring contrast with what he did for Eddie Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was turned in by his own fellow troops for allegedly murdering civilians and a captured prisoner in cold blood. Trump interfered in his prosecution and reversed his demotion. The message is clear: Commit war crimes and Fox News will get the president to turn you into a right-wing celebrity grifter, but try to save your troops from a disease pandemic and your career is toast.

Finally, the coronavirus pandemic comes after two decades of ceaseless imperialist warmongering, at a cost of perhaps $6.4 trillion and hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops killed, maimed, or psychologically injured, for no benefit whatsoever. America invaded and occupied Afghanistan in 2001; nearly 20 years later that country is in worse shape than it was when we started. America invaded Iraq on false pretenses and turned it into a dystopian nightmare hell. Fifty-eight percent of veterans say the war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting; 64 percent say the same thing about the war in Iraq.

American soldiers generally come from the middle of the income distribution, with the poorest and especially the richest neighborhoods underrepresented. The military is also considerably more diverse than the general population (except for the Marines, the smallest of the service branches). It is surely unlikely that dipping morale among the troops could suddenly curdle into boiling, insurrectionary rage, but it's not impossible. American soldiers have been pointlessly shoveled into a meat grinder for two decades, and now their officers have to sacrifice themselves to get Trump to protect them from a viral pandemic?

Make no mistake, segments of the military in open conflict with the president would be a terrifying development. Full-blown military revolts often end with some strongman general installing himself as dictator. America is hopefully still a long ways from that, but with Donald Trump as the commander-in-chief, with the lockstep backing of almost the entire Republican Party, and with potentially hundreds of thousands of Americans dying in the pandemic, would you really rule it out?

https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/844-history-of-the-russian-revolution

Tensions Persist Between Trump and Medical Advisers Over the Coronavirus
AT TODAYS DAILY BRIEFING THE DOCTORS WERE UNUSUALLY QUIET ABOUT DR. TRUMPS FAVORITE SNAKE OIL; CHLOROQUINE WHICH DESPITE ALREADY CAUSING ONE DEATH BY HIS PROMOTION SPENT ALL OF SATURDAY PROMOTING 

THIS QUACK MEDICINE NOT ONCE OR TWICE OR EVEN THRICE BUT EVERY OPPORTUNITY HE COULD GET
Peter Baker, Maggie Haberman and James Glanz, The New York Times•April 4, 2020

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, walks to a TV interview at the White House, Thursday, March, 12, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)

WASHINGTON —Rarely has the schism between President Donald Trump and his own public health advisers over the coronavirus pandemic been put on display quite so starkly. Even as he announced a new federal recommendation on Friday that Americans wear masks when out in public, he immediately disavowed it: “I am choosing not to do it.” 

The striking dichotomy underscored how often Trump has been at odds with the medical experts seeking to guide his handling of the outbreak as well as some of the governors fighting it on the front lines, despite his move to extend social distancing guidelines through April 30 and his acknowledgment that the death toll could be staggering.

While the health specialists and some governors press for a more aggressive, uniform national approach to the virus, the president has resisted expanding limits on daily life and sought to shift blame to the states for being unprepared to deal with the coronavirus. While they sound the alarm and call for more federal action, Trump has deflected responsibility and left it to others to take a more aggressive stance.

Some of the president’s health advisers in recent days have argued that restrictions on social interaction and economic activity that have shut down much of the nation need to be expanded to all 50 states and that more Americans need to adopt them. Trump, by contrast, has characterized the crisis as generally limited to hot spots like New York, California and Michigan and has expressed no support for a nationwide lockdown. “I would leave it to the governors,” he said on Friday.

As hospitals cope with shortages of medical equipment, the administration on Friday also rewrote the federal government’s stated mission for its stockpile of supplies to make clear that it sees itself as playing a secondary role to the states. Where the federal government once said the stockpile “ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need the most,” the revised version said the federal stockpile’s role was merely to “supplement state and local supplies.”

The tension over the scale of the federal response comes as the president defends his administration’s reaction to the pandemic that has now infected more than 270,000 people in the United States and killed more than 7,000. New polls showed that public support for Trump’s handling of the crisis has begun to slip, a worrisome development for a president seeking reelection in the fall.

Trump’s decision to take a back seat to the states by leaving it to them to decide whether to shut down public life and insisting they take the lead in addressing shortages amounts to a remarkable deference by a president who typically makes himself the center of the action. It also contrasts with his own self-description as a wartime president leading a great battle against an invisible enemy.

It underscores both pragmatic and political imperatives for Trump, reflecting a traditional federalist approach that eschews imposing a one-size-fits-all national standard on states. But it also shows the president’s desire to blame the governors rather than accept any responsibility for shortages of ventilators, masks and other critical supplies.

The most fundamental point of conflict centers over how broadly the virtual lockdown of many states in the Midwest and on the East and West Coasts should be expanded. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said stay-at-home orders should be extended to the entire nation.

“I don’t understand why that’s not happening,” Fauci said Thursday night on CNN. “The tension between federally mandated versus states’ rights to do what they want is something I don’t want to get into. But if you look at what is going on in this country, I don’t understand why we’re not doing that. We really should be.”

His comments came after a telling interchange between Trump and Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House pandemic response coordinator, at the Thursday’s daily briefing. Birx expressed concern that too many Americans were not following the guidelines.

“I can tell by the curve and as it is today, that not every American is following it,” she said. “And so this is really a call to action. We see Spain, we see Italy, we see France, we see Germany, when we see others beginning to bend their curves. We can bend ours, but it means everybody has to take that same responsibility as Americans.”

When she returned to the issue a few minutes later, Trump tried to recalibrate her remarks.

“But, Deborah, aren’t you referring to just a few states?” he said. “Because many of those states are dead flat.”

“Yes, there are states that are dead flat,” she agreed. “But you know, what changes the curve is a new Detroit, a new Chicago, a new New Orleans, a new Colorado. Those change the curves because it all of a sudden spikes with the number of new cases.” In other words, without taking action, “dead flat” states can suddenly become hot spots.

The interplay was a rare instance of Trump doing in real time on camera what officials have repeatedly denied that he does behind the scenes — attempting to water down the impact of what the medical experts were saying.

In a video that leaked online last week, Fauci was seen telling colleagues at the National Institutes of Health that he regularly made suggestions for the president’s prepared remarks before daily briefings but Trump “almost always” ignores them.

Where Fauci and Trump have differed most strongly is on the therapeutic potential of chloroquines to treat people suffering from the coronavirus. Trump has called the drugs, which are approved by the Food and Drug Administration for off-label uses aside from their intended treatment of ailments like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, could be a “game-changer.”

But Fauci has repeatedly sounded a note of skepticism, much to the president’s frustration. “I think we’ve got to be careful that we don’t make that majestic leap to assume that this is a knockout drug,” Fauci said in an interview on “Fox & Friends” on Friday.

Trump has also tried in recent days to blame states for shortages of medical equipment. “They should have had more ventilators,” he said on Friday.

Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, said at Thursday’s briefing that the federal stockpile was not for states to rely on. “The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile,” Kushner said. “It’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use.”

A day later, on Friday, the description on the Health and Human Services website for its Strategic National Stockpile was altered evidently to reflect that viewpoint.

Previously, the website said: “Strategic National Stockpile is the nation’s largest supply of lifesaving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out.”

“When state, local, tribal and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts,” it continued, “the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need the most during an emergency.” It went on to say the stockpile “contains enough supplies to respond to multiple large-scale emergencies simultaneously.”

But after the revisions, first noticed by journalist Laura Bassett, the website on Friday said that the role of the stockpile is to “supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. Many states have products stockpiled as well.”

“The supplies, medicines and devices for lifesaving care contained in the stockpile,” it added, “can be used as a short-term stopgap buffer when the immediate supply of adequate amounts of these materials may not be immediately available.”

The explosive growth of the virus in many cities over the last two weeks has made clear that the United States has not been following the trajectory of places like Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong that have kept outbreaks relatively contained so far. And the country has not begun to see the number of new cases level off yet, as Italy has.

Several scientists said it was too early to make ironclad statements about whether social distancing was having a powerful effect. In a few cities that acted early, including New York, San Francisco and Seattle, new reported cases have begun to slow, providing some optimism that control measures work.

“The growth rate in New York City is slowing. We do have evidence that measures we put in place two or three weeks ago may be having an effect,” said Jeffrey Shaman, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University. Data from Seattle and San Francisco, he said, shows “they’ve slowed it in spots. But whether they’re going to hold onto it is an open question.”

The number of cases and deaths in New York City has continued to rise quickly in recent days. More than 30,000 new cases in the metro area were reported since Monday for a total of more than 100,000 cases overall.

The United States has seen new hot spots in New Orleans, Indianapolis, Chicago, Detroit and other cities that did not significantly reduce how much people traveled until mid- to late-March, leaving open a critical window for exponential growth.

Florida, which took longer than most of the country to issue a stay-at-home order and reduce the distances that people traveled, reported increasing cases this week in the Miami, Tampa, and Jacksonville areas. Experts say the delays in keeping people at home in Florida and much of the Southeast could make those areas more vulnerable to outbreaks in coming weeks.

The low testing rate among the population can also muddle any assessment of the effect of distancing measures so far, said Lauren Ancel Meyers, a professor of biology and statistics at the University of Texas at Austin.

“In many of these other places, where social distancing measures were enacted very recently, it would be very difficult to see it in the data yet,” Meyers said. “Even if it’s effective.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2020 The New York Times Company

'It Was Terrible What He Did': Trump Rips Navy Captain Who Sounded Alarm On His Sick Sailors
Mary Papenfuss,HuffPost•April 4, 2020
President Donald Trump on Saturday lashed the Navy captain who was relieved of duty this week after he pleaded with military authorities in a letter for help for sailors with COVID-19 on his aircraft carrier.

“I thought it was terrible what he did, to write a letter,” an annoyed Trump said at his press briefing, referring to the action by Captain Brett Crozier. “This isn’t a class on literature. This is a captain of a massive ship that’s nuclear-powered. He shouldn’t be talking that way in a letter.”

The president, who also noted that he doesn’t “know much about it,” said that Crozier’s letter “raised alarm bells unnecessarily.”

Crozier, formerly of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, sent the letter seeking help for a coronavirus outbreak on his ship in a nonsecure unclassified email. It leaked to the media. More than 100 of 4,000 sailors on the ship had already tested positive for COVID-19 when Cozier sent the plea Monday.

“The letter was a five-page letter from a captain, and the letter was all over the place,” Trump complained. “That’s not appropriate. I don’t think that’s appropriate.”

It was actually a four-page letter, in which an upset Crozier warned that without immediate action, “we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our Sailors. The spread of the disease is ongoing and accelerating.” He added: “We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die.”

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said Thursday Crozier exercised
poor judgement.

Cozier’s crew applauded and cheered him, and chanted his name Friday when he left his ship, now docked at the U.S. Naval Base in Guam.



Here is Captain Crozier walking away from his ship while sailors chant his name after he was relieved from duty for blowing the whistle on a coronavirus contamination aboard the USS Roosevelt.

He sacrificed himself and it sounds like everyone knows it. pic.twitter.com/hwiu7Z1MVV

— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) April 3, 2020

Three sailors tested positive 15 days after the ship made a port stop in Da Nang, Vietnam, in early March, when there were only 100 reported cases in the country. It was the first known outbreak of COVID-19 on a military vessel at sea.

Trump also slammed the stop in Vietnam.

“I guess the captain stopped in Vietnam and people got off in Vietnam,” Trump said. “Perhaps you don’t do that in the middle of a pandemic or something that looked like it was going to be. History would say you don’t necessarily stop and let your sailors get off.”

During that same time in early March Trump himself was dismissing the threat of COVID-19, insisting March 10 that it will “go away,” and blaming the “fake news media” the previous day for inflaming the situation.

PRIVATE BONE SPURS SAYS
'He shouldn't be talking that way': Trump rips ousted Navy captain

By Juan Perez Jr., Politico•April 4, 2020

A Navy commander’s written alarms about a coronavirus outbreak aboard his aircraft carrier “looked terrible,” President Donald Trump said Saturday, as he praised military leaders who removed the USS Theodore Roosevelt’s top officer from his post.

Pentagon officials ousted Capt. Brett Crozier after he wrote a searing letter to Navy leaders notifying them of a spike in cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, among sailors on his carrier. The San Francisco Chronicle, Crozier's hometown newspaper, published the letter Tuesday. Crozier was fired Thursday, as his former ship idled in Guam.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly described Crozier’s firing this week as the "hardest thing that I've ever had to do."

Trump said he fully supported Crozier's removal, though he said, "I didn't make the decision."

"The letter was a five-page letter from a captain, and the letter was all over the place," Trump said. "That's not appropriate."

“I thought it was terrible, what he did, to write a letter. I mean, this isn't a class on literature. This is a captain of a massive ship that's nuclear powered. And he shouldn't be talking that way in a letter,” Trump said.

DURING HIS DAILY BRIEFING SATURDAY APRIL 4, TRUMP SAID THE LETTER WAS WRITTEN BY A DEMOCRATIC OPERATIVE IMPLYING IT WAS NOT ONLY POLITICAL BUT THE CAPTAIN WAS NOT SMART ENOUGH TO WRITE IT

The president also criticized Crozier for making a port call in Da Nang, Vietnam, in the midst of a global outbreak.

"Perhaps you don't do that in the middle of a pandemic," Trump said. "History would say you don't necessarily stop and let your sailors get off."

Defense officials have defended the Roosevelt's port call as reasonable decision to have made back in early February.

"At that time there were only 16 positive cases in Vietnam, and those were well to the north all isolated in Hanoi," Adm. Michael Gilday, the chief of naval operations, said in a March 24 press briefing, calling it "a very risk-informed decision" made by Admiral Philip Davidson, the head of Indo-Pacific Command.

More than 150 Roosevelt crew members have so far tested positive for Covid-19, the Navy said on Saturday. Forty-four percent of the crew has been tested, while more than 1,500 sailors have moved ashore as a smaller crew remains on board to sanitize the ship and keep its essential systems running.

Democrats in the House and Senate are now asking the Pentagon's top watchdog to investigate whether Modly acted improperly. In a letter to acting Pentagon Inspector General Glenn Fine, 17 Senate Democrats, led by Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, requested a probe of both Crozier’s firing and the carrier’s outbreak.

Modly has stopped short of accusing Crozier of leaking the letter, but faulted the captain for sending it over "non-secure, unclassified email" and copying "a broad array of people," instead of relaying his concerns directly to Modly. The letter contained no classified information.

In the letter, Crozier urged "decisive action" to remove the "majority of personnel" from the carrier.

“We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die," Crozier wrote. "If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our sailors.”

Crozier's letter "unnecessarily" caused panic among the sailors and their families, and raised doubts about the ship's operational capability — concern that could have "emboldened our adversaries to seek advantage," Modly said.

This week, videos circulated online showing the remaining crew of the Roosevelt cheering Crozier as he walked down the gangplank in Guam.

Connor O'Brien contributed to this report.

Sideshow Don: Trump pursues a non-virus agenda

By Nancy Cook,Politico•April 4, 2020


When President Donald Trump exacted revenge Friday night by ousting the chief watchdog for the intelligence community, it was just one more instance of the president’s addiction to sideshows -- in this case, closing out a personal vendetta in the middle of a global pandemic that has already claimed more than 8,000 American lives.

White House officials and Trump advisers privately cast the firing of Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community’s inspector general, as a move the president has plotted since the Senate acquitted him in February on two articles of impeachment.

But to Democrats and Trump skeptics, Atkinson’s Friday-night defenestration offered another example of the myriad ways this president is re-shaping the federal government during this crisis – both to pursue long-held policy goals and to purge internal critics.

“Almost all of our government systems are under such strain now. We have a heightened danger: first, of fraud and waste in terms of how many millions of dollars are being spent, plus, the potential abuse of power,” said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group.

“When you have enhanced government authority like restricting people’s travels, you want to make sure people’s civil liberties are not being violated,” she said. “All of these are dangerous positions for inspector generals to take if they are worried about getting fired.”

Trump showed little inclination on Saturday to disguise his motive for firing Atkinson, whom he said did a “terrible job, absolutely terrible.”

“He took a whistle-blower report which turned out to be a fake report. It was fake. It was totally wrong,” Trump said, though subsequent revelations confirmed the accuracy of the whistleblower’s complaint -- which sparked a months-long drive to impeachment -- in exquisite detail.

“Not a big Trump fan, that I can tell you,” the president added, during a press briefing otherwise devoted to the administration's struggle to combat the outbreak.

In the weeks since the coronavirus first hit the U.S., Trump has continued to pursue pet projects dating back to his 2016 campaign such as rolling back Obama-era regulations, building the border wall and fighting with the Federal Reserve. A new White House personnel director, 29-year-old Johnny McEntee, has meanwhile been hunting for political appointees who have shown any hint of disloyalty to Trump and ordering them transferred or fired.

This week, as the outbreak approached what the president warned could soon reach a “horrific” crescendo of daily deaths, Trump canned Atkinson and tapped a White House aide from the counsel’s office as the new coronavirus relief inspector general, who will oversee the distribution of $500 billion in economic relief to businesses.

Democrats have questioned the independence of a coronavirus inspector general culled from the ranks of the White House staff, even if the lawyer, Brian Miller, also once served as the inspector general of the General Services Administration for 10 years, starting during President George W. Bush’s administration.

Trump’s administration has also weakened government standards for auto emissions since the coronavirus emerged, rolling back a major policy from the Obama-era intended to fight climate change – while continuing to construct the controversial Keystone pipeline. The building of the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico has proceeded apace in Arizona, even as millions of Americans stay home to prevent the spread of the virus.

Trump also finally got his way with the Federal Reserve, after months of bashing its chairman in public, as the central bank slashed interest rates in recent weeks to keep the economy afloat as businesses across the country shut down and shed millions of jobs.

Presidents have long used crises to their advantage to enact sweeping political changes, dating back to Woodrow Wilson during the 1918 Spanish flu. Wilson used that pandemic to exert greater authority over the economy by leaning on emergency powers and executive orders to control fuel and food distribution.

Trump is no different in his sentiments as he has pushed policies on building the border wall, cutting taxes and acting tough toward China during an unprecedented public health crisis for which there is no immediate vaccine or cure.

In the case of Atkinson, Trump was removing one of the last of the officials he has angrily blamed for the impeachment “hoax,” with others having departed the government or been removed from their positions in the months since his acquittal

To close Trump allies, Atkinson’s ouster was fully justified -- and could even help repair the president’s broken relationship with the intelligence community, which reportedly warned that the coronavirus outbreak in China could have dire consequences for the United States.

The intelligence community “is supposed to be about serving the needs of the commander-in-chief and chief executive,” said Tom Fitton, the right-leaning president of Judicial Watch. “If you can get people in there who have his confidence, then the intelligence reports and briefings will be more readily accepted."


COVID-19: Dismissed U.S. carrier captain gets hero’s ovation after speaking out on virus fears
A clip showed Brett Crozier walking down the gangplank of the Theodore Roosevelt as crew repeatedly chanted 'Captain Crozier!'
Here is Captain Crozier walking away from his ship while sailors chant his name after he was relieved from duty for blowing the whistle on a coronavirus contamination aboard the USS Roosevelt.
He sacrificed himself and it sounds like everyone knows it. pic.twitter.com/hwiu7Z1MVV— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) April 3, 2020

WASHINGTON — Even as he is hailed as a hero by his crew, the fired commander of a coronavirus-stricken U.S. aircraft carrier is being reassigned while investigators consider whether he should face disciplinary action, acting U.S. Navy Secretary Thomas Modly told Reuters on Friday.

Captain Brett Crozier was relieved of his command of the Theodore Roosevelt on Thursday after a scathing letter in which he called on the Navy for stronger action to halt the spread of the virus aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was leaked to the media.

Modly said in an interview that the letter was shared too widely and leaked before even he could see it.

And that’s how you send out one of the greatest captains you ever had

But the backlash to Modly’s decision to fire Crozier has been intense. In videos posted online, sailors on the Theodore Roosevelt applauded Crozier and hailed him as a hero, out to defend his crew – even at great personal cost to his career.

“And that’s how you send out one of the greatest captains you ever had,” exclaimed one sailor in a video post, amid thunderous applause and cheering for Crozier as he left the carrier and its 5,000 crew members in Guam.

Modly did not suggest that Crozier’s career was over, saying he thought everyone deserved a chance at “redemption.”

“He’ll get reassigned, he’s not thrown out of the Navy,” Modly said.

But Modly said he did not know if Crozier would face disciplinary action, telling Reuters it would be up to a probe that will look into issues surrounding “communications” and the chain of command that led to the incident.

“I’m not going to direct them to do anything (other) than to investigate the facts to the best of their ability. I cannot exercise undue command influence over that investigation,” he said.

Crozier’s firing has become a lightening-rod political issue at a time when the Trump administration is facing intense criticism over its handling of a coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 6,000 people across the country, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

3M says Trump officials have told it to stop sending face masks to Canada

Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, accused the Trump administration of poor judgment and said Modly “shot the messenger.”

The dismissal, two days after the captain’s letter leaked, demonstrated how the coronavirus has challenged all manner of U.S. institutions, even those accustomed to dangerous and complex missions like the military.

His removal could have a chilling effect on others in the Navy seeking to draw attention to difficulties surrounding coronavirus outbreaks at a time when the Pentagon is withholding some detailed data about infections to avoid undermining the perception of U.S. military readiness for a crisis or conflict.

Reuters first reported last week that the U.S. armed forces would start keeping from the public some data about infections within its ranks.

‘DECISIVE ACTION’

In his four-page letter, Crozier, who took command in November, described a bleak situation aboard the carrier as more of his crew began falling ill.

He called for “decisive action”: removing more than 4,000 sailors from the ship and isolating them, and wrote that unless the Navy acted immediately it would be failing to properly safeguard “our most trusted asset – our sailors.”

The letter put the Pentagon on the defensive and alarmed the families of those on the vessel, whose home port is in San Diego.

President Donald Trump, when asked about the captain during a White House news conference on Thursday, disputed the notion that Crozier appeared to have been disciplined for trying to save the lives of sailors.

“I don’t agree with that at all. Not at all. Not even a little bit,” Trump said.

The outbreak aboard the Theodore Roosevelt is just the latest example of the spread of the COVID-19 respiratory virus within the U.S. military. Navy officials say sailors on a number of ships have tested positive, including an amphibious assault vessel in San Diego.

— Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart Editing by Paul Simao

After Kushner says 'it's our stockpile,' HHS website changed to echo his comments on federal crisis role

OUR BEING TRUMP INC. 

BEN GITTLESON,ABC News•April 3, 2020


It was a telling moment in the rising tensions between the Trump White House and state governors desperate for medical equipment to deal with the exploding coronavirus crisis.

At Thursday's briefing on how the government is responding, Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner scolded states for not building up their own stockpiles, saying that the "the notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile, it’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use."

PHOTO: GRAND POOHBAH to the President Jared Kushner

 speaks during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus,

 COVID-19, in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House

 on April 2, 2020, in Washington. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Earlier Thursday, President Donald Trump had tweeted, "Some have insatiable appetites & are never satisfied (politics?) Remember, we are a backup for them. The complainers should… have been stocked up and ready long before this crisis hit."

But the national stockpile actually is intended for states' use, which was clearly explained on the government's own website -- until the language was changed, without explanation, hours after Kushner provided his inaccurate description.

Until Friday morning, the website of the Department of Health and Human Services, which maintains the stockpile, read, "When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency."
But midday Friday, hours after Kushner directly contradicted the language on the HHS website, the text was changed without explanation. Retroactively matching what Kushner said, the website no longer says states can rely on the stockpile, but now says it exists to “supplement” them.

“The Strategic National Stockpile's role is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies," the website read on Friday afternoon. "Many states have products stockpiled, as well. The supplies, medicines, and devices for life-saving care contained in the stockpile can be used as a short-term stopgap buffer when the immediate supply of adequate amounts of these materials may not be immediately available.”
The Washington Post reported the change, citing a tweet by journalist Laura Bassett.

With a diminished stockpile of medical supplies and governors warning of a Wild West-like bidding process for ventilators, President Trump has refused to take a larger role in helping states hit hard by the novel coronavirus outbreak, instead making states compete for much of the supplies on the open market -- and insisting they are to blame for any shortfalls.

Leaving no one official in charge of the all-encompassing process of assessing need, production, allocation and distribution, Trump has resisted calls from across the country to have the federal government harness its unique ability to take the lead, pushing responsibility onto state governors and arguing they are to blame -- not him -- for equipment shortfalls.

"We're a backup," Trump said Thursday. "We're not an ordering clerk."

A bipartisan chorus of governors, former officials and experts have said the federal government can and must take the lead, though -- saying only it can harness the strength of American manufacturing and make sure materials get to the right states at the right times and at a reasonable rate.

The president on Wednesday acknowledged that the government's emergency supply of medical equipment, the Strategic National Stockpile, was nearly depleted, just as states like New York and Louisiana warn their hospitals may be days or weeks away from running out of ventilators, medical masks, surgical gowns and other essential supplies.

While the Federal Emergency Management Agency has sought to jumpstart the production of critical gear, governors have said its involvement has only made the bidding process for ventilators worse, jacking up the prices as states and the federal government compete for a limited supply.

PHOTO: Boxes of N95 protective masks for use by medical

 field personnel are seen at a New York State emergency

 operations incident command center during the coronavirus 

outbreak in New Rochelle, N.Y., March 17, 2020. 

(Mike Segar/Reuters, FILE)

Sometimes, they say, they have found themselves losing out on contracts to the federal government.

On Thursday, the Navy officer running FEMA's supply chain task force said that he was mainly focused on ensuring the flow of the gear to the commercial market -- rather than mandating it be allocated to states and localities based on need.

In effect, the federal government has left it up to hospitals and state governments to compete for masks, surgical gowns and more, a key complaint of governors across the country.

"I'm not here to disrupt a supply chain," Rear Adm. John Polowczyk told reporters at the White house. "We are bringing product in, they are filling orders for hospitals, nursing homes, like normal. I am putting volume into that system."

PHOTO: Workers unload boxes of medical supplies at

 Mount Sinai Hospital amid the coronavirus pandemic, 

March 31, 2020 in New York. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

FEMA said in a statement earlier this week that it had always assumed the Strategic National Stockpile "alone could not fulfull (sic.) all requirements" and that "the federal government will exhaust all means to identify and attain (sic.) medical and other supplies needed to combat the virus."

The agency said Thursday it was "expediting movement of critical supplies from the global market to medical distributors in various locations across the United States," citing half a dozen flights bringing personal protective equipment across the country so far.

MORE: Disaster in motion: 3.4 million travelers poured into US as coronavirus pandemic erupted

FEMA said "varying quantities" of the gear would go to "medical distributors in areas of greatest need," with the rest "infused into the broader U.S. supply chain." It said priority would be given to hospitals, health care facilities and nursing homes, but did not explain how that would work.

The agency said that as of Thursday, it had delivered or was in the process of shipping 8,100 ventilators, 11.6 million N-95 respirators and a host of other equipment across the country. It did not provide detailed information on exactly where or when it distributed the supplies.

The federal government, though, has so far not prevented domestic manufacturers of critical medical supplies from shipping that gear abroad. FEMA told ABC News this week it had "not actively encouraged or discouraged U.S. companies from exporting overseas."

On Thursday, Trump's top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, said that on Friday, the federal government would issue an order that would "empower Customs and Border Protection, with the help of people like the post office and express mail consignors like UPS, to basically deal with that issue." He did not provide more details.

Meanwhile, Trump had until last week largely resisted using the Korean War-era Defense Production Act, which would allow him to set prices and order companies to sign contracts, previously only threatening its use.

Trump last week said he would use the act to compel General Motors to produce ventilators, and on Thursday he said he would use it to help more manufacturers produce ventilators. He nor the White House have provided exact details on how it would be employed.

Trump also used the act on Thursday to compel the conglomerate 3M, a major producer of N-95 respirator masks, to prioritize orders from FEMA. The company said Friday the federal government had "requested that 3M cease exporting respirators that we currently manufacture in the United States to the Canadian and Latin American markets."

Pushing back, 3M said that doing so could lead to retaliation from other countries -- decreasing the total supply of masks available to the United States -- and noted there were "significant humanitarian implications of ceasing respirator supplies to healthcare workers in Canada and Latin America, where we are a critical supplier of respirators."

The president last week appointed Navarro to lead procurement using the Defense Production Act, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Navarro was not the right person for the job and that a military general should take the lead.

Trump on Thursday morning rejected that he needed to change anything, saying that a "military man," Polowczyk, was already involved.
What to know about coronavirus:

"Somebody please explain to Cryin’ Chuck Schumer that we do have a military man in charge of distributing goods, a very talented Admiral, in fact. New York has gotten far more than any other State, including hospitals & a hospital ship, but no matter what, always complaining," Trump tweeted.

But with Navarro in charge of implementing the Defense Production Act, Polowczyk heading up the supply chain task force and Vice President Mike Pence running a presidential coronavirus task force -- not to mention other heavily involved officials, like Kushner -- responsibility is diffuse across the administration.

No one person has been put in charge of every step, from assessing current capacity and need to overseeing a national production strategy, coordinating with states and hospitals, and ensuring distribution.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is running for the Democratic nomination for president, on Tuesday called on Trump to appoint a former general or someone else in the administration "who is used to organizing massive efforts" to lead the charge.

"Consolidating all of this into one person makes sense," Michael Posner, a former assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor in the Obama administration, told ABC News.

"I can't think of any group that is better than the most senior military leaders," said Posner, who now directs the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University's Stern School of Business. "This is what they do. This is what they've done, and they've done it in real time and in difficult circumstances."

ABC News' Anne Flaherty, Eric Strauss, Megan Hughes and Molly Nagle contributed reporting.

After Kushner says 'it's our stockpile,' HHS website changed to echo his comments on federal crisis role originally appeared on abcnews.go.com